Clay Harvey. Bob Brackney. Rifle Staff. Bob Hagel. This Month s Cover

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2 Rifle The Magazine for Shooters Only accurate rifles are interesting - Col. Townsend Whelen Volume 10, Number 1 January-February 1978 IN THIS ISSUE Multi-Purpose.284 Winchester.... Clay Harvey Gunstocking and the Flintlock Rifle..... John Bivins Two Brownings... Claud Hamilton HighlLow Number Springfields.... Dave LeGate The Rigid Ruger..... Benchrest Hall of Fame A&H... Bob Brackney Rifle Staff Bob Hagel Pyrodex and the Workhorse James C. Gates DEPARTMENTS Editorial Dear Editor... 8 American Gunmakers Muzzle Flashes Sighting Shots Aiming for Answers Classic Rifles NBRSA News a Product Proofing Bench Report Trophy Pointers Adopted in August 1969 as Official Publication For National Bench Rest Shooters Association This Month s Cover A few years ago, Prescott gunsmith Fred Wells had this single-shot rifle in for some work. It was mad6 in a small German gun shop and may be one of a kind. The action, marked Blitz,; has a unique combination of break-open and falling block action; the safety had to be pulled back like a hammer each time the rifle was fired. The gun has double set triggers, and is chambered for the,300 Weatherby Magnum; a fourpower Zeiss scope is fitted. Photo by Richard L Aldis. R/FLE Magazine, copyright 1977, is published bi-monthly by Wolfe Publishing Co., Inc., (Dave Wolfe, President), P.O. Box 3030, Prescott, Arizona Telephone ( Second Class Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Single copy price of current issues $1.50. Subscription price: six issues $7.75; 12 issues $13.00; 18 issues $ IOutisde U.S. possessions and Canada - $9.00. $15.00 and $ Recommended foreign single copy price $1.75. Advertising rates furnished on request. All nghts reserved. Publisher of R/FL is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use Of published data, or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the editor. Manuscripts from free-lance writers must be accompanied by stamped self-addressed envelope and the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts. Change of address: please give six week s notice. Send both old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Dept., RIFLE Magazine, P.O. Box 3030, Prescott, Arizona The Staff Neal Knox, Editor and Publisher Ralph Tanner, Jr., Sales Director Rick Jamison, Associate Editor Dave LeGate, Art Director Barbara Pickering, Production Supervisor Lynda Ritter, Editorial Assistant Richard Aldis, Staff Photographer Joyce Bueter, Circulation Manager Terry Bueter, Circulation Jana Kosco, Executive Secretary Wanda Hall, Accounting R.T. Wolfe, Ph.D., Consultant Technical Editors John Bivins Bob Brackney Bob Hagel Clay Harvey A1 Miller Maj. George C. Nonte, Jr. Homer Powley Ken Waters Don Zutz 4 RIFLE Magazine

3 SHOTS BY RICK JAMISON rn II rifles and a shotgun, glass bedding from a ballpoint pen, which fell onto the NSTALLING SLING swivels on two the stock, was a spring, resembling that a rifle and installing a Canjar trigger floor. Wondering where it came from, I seemed like a reasonable amount to be placed it aside and decided I d find out accomplished during an evening after later. I then loosened the screw and drove work. The only job I was unfamiliar with out the pin to remove the old trigger, was installing the trigger on the Reming- according to directions. The next step ton M Neal box had was to transfer the screw, safety and bolt mentioned that he had one for his M-788 stop parts from the factory trigger to the and there was nothing to it - Just a drift Canjar trigger. An asterisk and footnote Pin through the trigger boss and a Screw indicated that late model triggers differ to hold tension on the forward section of from early M-788 triggers and the late the trigger. After all, exchanging a model triggers require that: (a) The factory for a custom trigger is simply a safety plunger and spring furnished with matter of replacing the old with the new. the new Canjar trigger must be used Bullpucky! instead of the existing one and (b) a I started with the trigger because that threaded hole in the side of the Canjar intrigued me most; I never finished it. trigger housing must be drilled out to Doing everything by the numbers, I accept one of two grooved, headed pins removed the bolt from the action and used to mount the safety lever. I used removed the action from the stock. The nothing more than a 1M-inch electric first problem, as I lifted the action from hand drill and had no problems. 14 SAECO-DARR RIFLE CO. LTD. P.O. BOX 778 CARPINTERIA, CALIFORNIA That completed, the next step was to install the Canjar trigger on the action with the drift pin and tighten tension on the screw. The instructions said to be careful not to tighten the screw with too much force as the trigger boss was rather fragile and could be easily broken. I thought trigger bosses were supposed to be milled into the receiver - didn t look too fragile to me. Still, everything going smoothly, I followed directions. With the action put together, I still couldn t see where that ballpoint pen-size spring went. Replacing the rifle s bolt and working the action and dry-firing a few times, I tried the adjustment with the Allen wrench furnished. Pleased with everything in general, I proceeded to get everything back into the stock. This is where things started getting complicated. Reading ahead, I found that the trigger hole in the floor plate had to be filed out to clear the trigger housing and a screw. Wood inside the stock had to also be removed to make room for the larger trigger. The trigger guard also had to be bent or filed to obtain clearance for the trigger shoe. Directions said it may also be necessary to enlarge the hole in the floor plate to clear the top of the trigger shoe. All of this was to be done only if necessary, of course. But first of all, the trigger shoe pin had to be tapped out to remove the shoe so that the trigger would fit through the hole in the stock. Trying to tap the trigger shoe pin from the trigger, I found out what was meant by a fragile trigger boss. The drop of silver solder holding it onto the receiver broke loose. With nothing in my living room to solder with, I decided to turn the whole project over to Paul Marquart, the well-known coyote-calling gunsmith. With quite a bit of effort, he made everything okay. He returned the unused parts, including that ballpoint pen-size spring. Guess I ll never know where it came from. I installed the sling swivels but still haven t bedded that 788, and I m afraid to remove that trigger shoe to get it out of the stock. I just hope it continues to shoot under an inch - and so long as it shoots so well, 1 11 not worry with it. * * * That same and new trigger received its first field test last Saturday when Clay Harvey and I went coyote hunting. The rifle did beautifully. One coyote was killed after Clay shot at it twice at about three hundred yards, running. I plopped down over a boulder, led him several feet, held a few inches high and the 55-grain Remington PLHP smacked him to the ground. We shot at five coyotes Monday morning; all were way out there and ~ ~ ~ * mm ~ ~ ~ running. * We did what ~ gun writers * aren t ~ supposed to do and missed. 0 RIFLE Magazine.

4 By BOB HAGEL A MERICAN GUN buffs are the most prolific wildcatters in the world. Let a new case hit the market and gun bugs will wildcat it in every possible direction. They ll neck it down and they ll neck it up. They ll shorten or lengthen the neck and do the same for the body. They ll blow the body out and change the shoulder angle. And they ll do other things that the original designer never dreamed about. Some wildcats are designed to give more velocity than the parent cartridge, some less, and sometimes it turns out that the change is marginal even though the wildcatter had visions of major improvements. Many wildcat cases are based on full length belted magnum brass and used in the longest actions with bullets seated long to gain even more powder capacity, while others want a case that functions through shorter actions while also giving high velocity and energy. But the vast majority of these wildcat cases are based on American cartridge cases in one form or another, and the wildcat with an imported sire of foreign manufacture is a rarity. The.338 A&H (Abe & Harris) is, however, an American wildcat in an American caliber, built on the British.404 Jeffery case. The main reasoning behind this design is a large capacity case short enough to be used in standard length actions, but with more powder capacity than the.338 Winchester. A cartridge of the same length and affording even more powder capacity can be made from.378/.460 Weatherby brass, but magazine alterations for that cartridge pose a much greater problem when you try to crowd three of these oversize belted rounds into a standard staggered-column magazine. Where the Weatherby case has a belt diameter of.603-inch, the.404 Jeffery case measures only.545 on the rim, which allows a much narrower magazine and less bolt face alteration for the.404 case, as well as less work on the rails for proper feeding. With a 250-grain W-W Silvertip bullet seated to the crimping cannelure, the.338 Winchester holds 78.5 grains of water, while the water content of the.338 A&H is 89.6 grains. This seems like quite a difference, and one might assume that velocity would be considerably higher in the A&H case than in the Winchester. However, when we consider that the water capacity of the.340 Weatherby case is 93.3 grains with the same bullet seated to function through magnum-length magazines, which means deeper seating into the case, and that velocity with the 250-grain bullet is only about fps higher than with the.338 Winchester, it shatters any dream of great velocity increases from the.338 A&H over the.338 Winchester. But we ll take a closer look at that point later European walnut, with some features leaning toward British rifles made for African use. The front sling swivel base is on the barrel forward of the fore-end tip, and the rear open sight is a handmade express-type with a single solid leaf with wide V, adjustable for both elevation and windage. AMERICAN WllDCAT ON A BRITISH CASE RIFLE Magazine

5 Cases used in my load development testing were from two different sources, at least one of which is available to all handloaders. Several years ago Norma made up an order of cases on what is normally known as the basic case - a case that is left in its cylindrical form with correct body taper but no necking. This basic case was for the.404 Jeffery and was made for Guns & Ammo for the.460 G&A wildcat. Some of the test cases were made from this brass. The other source, and one that is readily available, is.404 Jeffery cases from RWS and distributed in this country by Eastern Sports Distributors, Inc., Savage Road, Milford, N.H The.338 A&H cases made from Norma basic.404 brass are lighter because the body walls are thinner than the RWS.404 case wall; a case made from Norma brass weighs 277 grains as compared to 288 grains for the RWS brass. While neatly all velocity testing was done with Norma brass, as the chart shows, I found that one grain less powder in the RWS case gave almost identical velocity with approximately the same pressures. Forming procedure for the.338 A&H is time-consuming and requires a lot of tools. The tool set made by RCBS consists of three form dies, a trim die, and a ream die with inside neck reamer, plus the normal full-length resizing and seating dies. Also, when using the Norma basic.404 cases, it is a good plan to anneal the cases down to somewhat below the shoulder. I found this step was not necessary when using RWS.404 cases, although case neck life might be longer if the cases were annealed after forming and trimming. I had no split necks either with or without annealing. The form dies are with N ~. 1, In the panel at left, the.338 ABH, center, is flanked by its commercial counterparts, the.338 Winchester, left, and.340 Weatherby. In the right panel is a.404 Jeffery, parent case for the.338 A IH. approximately.40,.35 and.338 calibers. After these three necking steps are completed, the case is run into the trim die -and trimmed with a tine-toothed hacksaw, then filed smooth. The case is then run into the ream die and the neck reamed to bring it down to the correct thickness. The reamer is a bit stiff to turn when removing the amount of brass necessary, and while a T handle works well, a carpenter brace is faster. The case is then chamfered in the normal manner, full-length resized and is ready to load. When fired, the case will finish forming in the chamber by blowing the body taper out to slightly larger shoulder diameter (only about.oos on a resized case) and the shoulder brought to a true 25' angle. When RWS.404 Jeffery cases are used, the No. 1 form die is not used because the shoulder of the.338 A&H is at approximately the same location as the shoulder of the.404. Thus one step is eliminated. It is also possible to get by without reaming the.404 RWS cases, except for the fact that where the new shoulder forms the brass is slightly thicker, and causes a ridge that is easily felt as the bullet base passes the neck/shoulder juncture. If the case is run back into the ream die and reamed after the first firing, this minute ridge will be eliminated. Before getting to the actual reloading of the.338 A&H, it might be well to take a brief look at the rifle that fires it. Many readers will remember the articles on the.460 and.375 Van Horn cartridges tested in rifles made up by Walt Abe; he also produces the.338 A&H rifle. The reason this cartridge is called the Abe & Harris is that Edward Harris did the dimensional drawing from which chambering reamers were made, and he also does the barrel work, including chambering and fitting, makes the rear sights, as well as most of the other metal work in the Abe shop. Walt Abe, being a top-rate stockmaker, does that end of the rifle and the finishing. Gil Van Horn was probably instrumental in working out the case design, as he and Abe work out of the same shop. The test rifle was built around a Model 98 Mauser action which has been tuned up somewhat to improve its function and appearance. The bolt face had to be enlarged to accommodate the larger case head size, and the magazine widened for the larger diameter cartridge. In widening the magazine, a shoulder was left in the wall that fits against the shoulder of the case and acts as a block to prevent battering the bullet points under recoil. Sometimes such an arrangement will dent the case shoulder when cartridges are left in the magazine while a good deal of firing is done. Whether this will happen in this rifle I do not know, because all firing was done single-shot. With the Express style rear sight on its high, long base, and the front sling swivel base on the barrel forward of the fore-end The left panel shows the amount of reduction each forming step gives the Norma basic.404 case during necking to.338 A&H. The right panel shows the normal case-forming No. and No. for convenience Of the progression, including trimming and reaming. During fire-forming, a full power load may be reloader, and they neck the basic case to used, for the body taper is blown out only slightly. Januarv-February *

6 tip, the rifle has a European look. The stock is of European walnut of good color and shows broken fiddleback thr oughout. It is of classic design and very straight to take up the recoil of the big cartridge. There is a generous amount of checkering of point pattern design that is very well done, and an oil finish. All in all, it s a beautiful rifle that functions as well as it looks. Even though there was no load data with the rifle, there was little doubt that the slow powders from 4350 to H-41 would give the highest velocity with all bullet weights, and seeing that case capacity fell nearer to the.340 Weatherby than to the.338 Winchester, it also seemed that H-41 and Norma might give the highest velocity with all bullet weights above 200 grains. Load tests were started with the W-W 200-grain Power-Point bullet, and as expected, the slowest powders used, H-41 and, gave the lowest velocity, with 4350 showing by far the best results. Any of the six slow powders tried in the short, fat case will give the 200-grain bullet more than 3,000 fps, but 4350 proved to be the only one that would go over the 3,100 fps mark at trouble-free pressures. No 210-grain Nosler bullets were used in these tests, but there is little doubt that this bullet can be pushed along at over 3,050 fps with the best powders. I doubt, however, if 4350 will give the highest The sectioned.338 A&H case at left was formed from Norma basic.404 brass, and would appear to be heavier than the RWS case at right because of the thick web section. However, it is 11 grains lighter, lor the RWS case has a much thicker body wall. Because of the slightly larger capacity of the Norma case, one additional grain of H-41 is required to give 250-grain bullets velocities equal to those obtained with the RWS case. velocity with that much longer bullet. A glance at the chart will show that the velocity trend reversed itself between the faster 4350 and slower H-41 when the 225-grain Hornady bullet was tested, and while there is only 25 grains weight differential, the shape of the Hornady bullet makes it much longer, which requires deeper seating for use through the short magazine, and the Nosler 210 Partition bullet is nearly as long. The fact is, the 225-grain Hornady is longer than either the 250-grain Hornady or the 250-grain W-W that was used for load development in that bullet weight, and seating depth has a great deal of influence on both charge and velocity. It will also be noted that with the 250-grain W-W bullet the charges of, 785. and IMR-41 were exactly the same as with the 225-grain bullet. Pressure indications.338 A&H Load Data,338 A&H, 24 barrel Cases formed from Norma basic,404 Jeffery brass. CCI 250 primers Oehler Temperature, 70 Velocity instrumental at 15 feet converted to MV were checked and double checked with both bullets with these powders to see if there had been some error, but there was none. Other factors besides bullet length were undoubtedly involved, but this point is certainly important. This is something that not many reloaders are aware of, but shows up with different bullet weights and styles with various powders in cases of certain bores, capacities and shapes. It seems to crop up more with short, fat cases than with longer cases having similar powder capacity. To carry this point of seating depth a bit further - that is, the distance the bullet base protrudes into the case body because of bullet shape and/or magazine length - note the 3-grain cut in powder charge of when the 250-grain Sierra spitzer boat tail was used in place of the Weight, 2 grains Bullet Powder Charge Velocity Remarks, 100-yard groups 250 Sierra BT 250 W-W (RWS.404 case) H-41 W-W 785 IMR-41 IMR-4350 H-41 w-w 785 I M R-41 I M R-4350 H-41 W-W 785 I M R-41 I M R-4350 H-41 H-41 W-W 785 IMR-41 IMR ,005 3,036 3,034 3,085 3,079 3,126 2,920 2,913 2,820 2,857 2,884 2,862 2,803 2,877 2,761 2 I 784 2,728 2,761 2,807 2,803 2,626 2,672 2,614 2 I 578 2,566 2,611 ^- average group size, 2 highest velocity variation average all loads average group size 3 low velocity variation all loads average group size with all loads, 2 low velocity variation with all loads 5/8 most accurate load 1 3-shot groups, all others average 2 velocity variation very low with all loads These loads were all maximum trouble-free hunting loads in the test rifle, but due to the rather large chamber in the test rifle, should be approached from at least four grains below in any other rifle. 38 RIFLE Magazine

7 250-grain Silvertip. Heavier charges were tried with the Sierra bullet, but had to be backed off to hold pressures at a similar level as with the W-W bullet. This same condition existed in tests run in the.338 Winchester and.340 Weatherby cases, but, strangely, only with Norma 205 or powders, and not with H-41 which took the same charge with both bullets for similar velocities with both brands. Figure that one out if you can! Anyway, the 225-grain Hornady bullet shows the highest velocity with H-41 and, with either one beating 2,900 fps for a very flat shooting load. Accuracy, however, was pretty sour with this bullet in this rifle. Groups averaged three inches at 100 yards even though velocity variation was low. It may be possible that a shorter throat would give better accuracy with that bullet, as the throat in this rifle measures an even.333-inch from case neck to lands when a reversed bullet is seated in the chamber. As far as I am concerned, the way a.338 cartridge handles the 250-grain bullet is the criterion of its performance, and the.338 A&H does very well with that bullet weight with some powders. Here H-41 shows up very well, but far outclasses all other powders by delivering 2,877 fps at the muzzle. This is getting up near the velocity possible with the.340 Weatherby case if.375 H&H W-W brass is used and both rifles have the same 24-inch barrel length as used in the.338 A&H. However, the.340 will do 2,900 fps with both and H-41, while the.338 A&H clocks only 2,800 fps at similar pressure with H-41. The 275-grain Speer was the heaviest bullet used, as no 300-grain bullets were available at the time of testing, and again led the other powders used by a large margin. With this bullet, the.338 A&H fell behind the.340 Weatherby by nearly 100 fps with the best powders for each cartridge, but was still a little ahead of the 338 Winchester. It may seem odd that with the 275-grain bullet the same charge of 4350 was used as with IMR- 41, and one might assume that pressures were lower with IMR-41. This is not the case, however, as retesting gave identical results. It's just another example of a certain powder not being right for a certain case with some bullet weights. I suspect that the same situation would be true with 300-grain bullets. And it again proves that just because one powder can be used with heavier charges than another with most bullet weights, it can't always be used at the same ratio straight across the board. Acting under that assumption, I've picked up glaring excessive pressure signs more than once. If the load chart is studied closely and compared with the velocity that is possible with the best powders in maximum trouble-free hunting loads for the.338 Winchester and the.340 Weatherby, it will be obvious that the.338 A&H falls between the two, as might be expected by the case capacities. It will also be noted that with only a few powders will it outclass the.338 Winchester with any bullet weight. Some of the reason for this could lie & case design. At first I thought it might be linked to case hardness but the RWS cases averaged 84 Rockwell on the B scale, and the Norma, 82 Rb. This is quite hard and on the same level as W-W brass. At any rate, the.338 A&H is a pretty potent package that - with the right bullets - will take care of nearly any heavy game in the world. And if you have a desire to go all-out in forming your own cases, while having something different that will work in a doctored length action, Walt Abe will make you a rifle. REVEAL AND CORRECT CASE PROBLEMS [l] ALIGNMENT: Bullet Seater. [21 CASE -TO-HEAD AND, OVERALL CASE LENGTH: LENGTH: Case Trimmer 131 NECK THICKNESS: Adjustable Cartridge. Case Gage for Belted Inside Neck Reamer. [4] SHARP CORNERS: Calibers. [7] CRIMPED-IN PRIMERS: Remove Burring tool Chamfers Inside and Outside. with Punch and Base Set, restore Pockets with [5] CONE-TO-HEAD AND OVERALL CASE Primer Pocket Reamer. LENGTH: Cartridge Case Gage. [6] CONE SEE AT YOUR DEALER OR ORDER DIRECT BOX 324 FREE CATALOG WITH VALUABLE TIPS 1.E. WILSON, INC. CASHMERE, WASHINGTON STOP GU SS/MG! USE CORRECT LOADS! Compute loads for modern cartridges with the Powley Computer for Handloaders (prescribes powder and calculates velocity - $5.50) and the Powley psi Calculator (gives you chamber pressure - $4.00). Both in one package with special powder chart- $ includes the package deal for U.S. and Canada. Foreign - Airmail - $12.00). Note: The pressure calculator cannot be operated without the Powley Computer for Handloaders. A new and up-to-date table showing how recently produced powders may be adapted to the Powley computers is available for $1.00 but they also are enclosed with each package sale. The Powley High Velocity Trajectory Chart, which reports the bullet's flight to 500 yards after the computers have provided the loading essentials, is available at $22. Hntton Rlfle Ranch Tucson, Arizona protect8 magazine and trlgger mechanism from cleanlng nolvent 1802 S. Oak Park Drive.. Rolling Hills - Dept. R Encourages Frequent, WORRY-FRE Avallable for all DoDular callberr, and for all leading makes of rifler. FREE mxl catalog also daacrlbes our full line of CASE-MRD'" ammo boxes and reloadlng accesaorles. MTM Molded Products Company 5680 Webster Street Dayton, Ohio January-Februaw